As fixed pixel display devices, each having a structure that a multiple number (M) of stripe-shaped scanning electrodes extending in a first direction and another multiple number N of stripe-shaped data electrodes extending in a second direction different from the first direction (for example, intersecting at right angles with), are provided and light-emitting regions, formed of overlap regions of the scanning electrodes and the data electrodes, are arrayed in a two-dimensional matrix form of M rows×N columns, known examples include cold cathode field electron emission display devices, liquid crystal displays, organic electroluminescence displays, and inorganic electroluminescence displays (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-296131). In these fixed pixel display devices, the line-sequential drive method is often adopted. The term “line-sequential drive method” means a method that in scanning electrodes and data electrodes intersecting with each other in a matrix form, scanning signals are inputted to desired scanning electrodes to select and scan them such that, based on video signals (also called “chrominance signals”) inputted to the data electrodes, an image is displayed to create a single frame of picture.
To each data electrode, an output circuit 100 for the data electrode, the circuit diagram of which is shown in FIG. 14, is generally connected. It is to be noted that an equivalent circuit of the data electrode is also depicted in FIG. 14. This output circuit 100 for the data electrode is, for example, a current buffer circuit formed of a CMOS circuit.
In general, a video signal is inputted to an A/D converter 41, an output from the A/D converter 41 is once stored in a line buffer 42 and is then fed to a D/A converter 43, and an analog signal from the D/A converter 43 is fed to the output circuit 100 for the data electrode. On the other hand, scanning electrodes are connected to output circuits for the scanning electrodes, respectively. It is to be noted that neither a scanning electrode nor an output circuit for the scanning electrode is shown in FIG. 14. Upon actuation of the output circuits for the scanning electrodes on the basis of a switching timing pulse (load signal), the scanning electrodes in the 1st row to the Mth row are energized in a line-sequential manner so that, for example, a fixed voltage is sequentially applied to the scanning electrodes. On the data electrode in an nth column (n=1, 2, . . . , N), on the other hand, a voltage VDATA, which is variable by a voltage modulation method, is applied in accordance with a gradation from the output circuit 100 for the data electrode (see FIG. 3B).
The leading-edge and trailing-edge waveforms of a voltage VDATA to be applied to the data electrode from the output circuit 100 for the data electrode, however, hardly become steep, as illustrated under in FIG. 3B, because a capacity component exists in the data electrode, as shown in FIG. 14. Unless the waveform of the voltage VDATA to be applied to the data electrode is steep, the response for the display of an image is reduced, thereby making it difficult to smoothly display the image. In a cold cathode field electron emission display device, large capacitance components generally tend to exist in data electrodes, for example, cathode electrodes, and as a consequence, the leading-edge and trailing-edge waveforms of voltages VDATA to be applied to the data electrodes are still more difficult to become steep.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a fixed pixel display device and a cold cathode field electron emission display device, each of which has a construction capable of making steep the leading-edge and trailing-edge waveforms of voltages to be applied to electrodes.